Killer Faces Sentencing 5 1/2 Years After Verdict

December 12, 1985|by DEBBIE GARLICKI, The Morning Call

An Allentown man convicted of a 1979 shooting is scheduled to be formally sentenced in January, 5 1/2 years after his trial, because of delays caused by a voluminous court record and continuances in his case for a new trial.

Lehigh County Judge James N. Diefenderfer said some of the delay in the sentencing was caused by continuances requested by the attorney for Freddie Lee Greene, who was 36 at the time of his trial.

Diefenderfer, who presided over Greene's 1980 trial, said the delay also was attributable to transcribing notes of testimony.

Greene has been in Lehigh County Prison since his $50,000 bail was revoked after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison for the death of Franklin McClary of Allentown.

An autopsy showed McClary had five gunshot wounds to the head, chest, abdomen and back.

Greene had testified that he acted in self-defense when McClary came at him with a knife.

Diefenderfer and Judge Robert K. Young, who heard arguments for a new trial, issued an order Dec. 4 rejecting Greene's arguments for a new trial.

The 30-page written opinion sets forth some of the delays that seemed to plague the case from the onset.

Jury selection for the trial started on Jan. 23, 1980, and 11 jurors were chosen between then and Jan. 30.

The court learned that a state police criminalist, Alexander Stirton, who was listed as a potential witness in the trial, was a member of the jury panel called to jury duty on Jan. 28.

Stirton wasn't called as a witness in the trial but had examined clothing for blood and issued a report for the police prosecutor.

Greene's attorney, Colie Chappelle, asked that the court question jurors who had been selected during the period Stirton was on the panel. Seven jurors were disqualified.

Jury selection was continued to February because the criminal trial session for January was drawing to a close and no more jurors were to be called for that month.

Potential jurors were questioned from Feb. 27 to March 3 when Chappelle asked that the trial be held in another county or continued because of a story in The Morning Call on a commonwealth witness, Dr. Isidore Mihalakis, a forensic pathologist.

Chappelle contended that the article was prejudicial to Greene although it didn't mention the Greene case.

Chappelle's request was denied, and the trial proceeded.

That was one of the issues Chappelle raised in his post-trial motions. Diefenderfer and Young ruled that the court did not err in denying his request, saying an examination of the jury selection showed the article didn't cause any prejudice to Greene.

The two judges also rejected Chappelle's argument that the first assistant district attorney, James Knoll Gardner, now a Lehigh County judge, was aware that Stirton was mingling in the jury room with prospective jurors.

The written opinion said Gardner "had no prior knowledge" that Stirton had been summoned for jury duty.

Other arguments that were dismissed were that Greene was arrested without probable cause and that he was denied a fair trial because of the delay caused by Stirton being among potential jurors.

One of Chappelle's other arguments was that the court erred when it found two girls, ages 7 and 10, competent to testify.

Diefenderfer and Young said the girls understood the meaning of telling the truth and thought they would be punished if they told a lie.

The court also dismissed arguments about the admission into the trial of McClary's clothing and photographs of his body and alleged improper remarks made by the prosecution.

The written opinion said Chappelle cited 24 reasons for a new trial and four reasons to have the guilty verdict dismissed but did not orally argue all of the points before the two judges.